Shawinigan within 4 points of the final playoff spot

by

Benjamin Houle

After a three game road trip in the Maritimes, the Cataractes are now 4 points out of the final playoff spot. After loosing in Bathurst, Shawinigan came back from a 3 goal deficit to beat Saint-John before loosing the day after against Halifax.

Fitzpatrick outstanding despite a 5-2 loss in Acadie-Bathurst

The Cataractes took an early lead when Jason Horvath took a hard shot from the blue line. Jérémy Manseau jumped on the rebound and earned his 10th of the season.

Then, within 43 seconds, Bathurst scored twice and took the lead 2-1 before the end of the first period. In the second, while shooting 15 times in the second, Bathurst added two goals to put the team ahead 4-1 heading into the third. The start of the third period wasn’t any good for Daniel Renaud’s team when Bathurst scored on the powerplay to take a 5-1 lead.

Juste before the end of the game, Leon Denny scored his 6th of the season, on the powerplay, when his slapshot from the blue line beat Joseph Murdaca.

Shawinigan comes back in stellar fashion to earn a 8-5 win in Saint-John

Mathieu Bellemare earned the start agains the Sea Dogs and the first period was a disaster for Daniel Renaud’s team as they gave up 3 goals within the first 12 minutes.

Nobody knows what Daniel Renaud told his players during the break, but Gabriel Denis and Alex Plamondon scored within 11 seconds and all of a sudden, the Cataractes were back in the game. Robbie Burt scored in the last moments of the second just before Anthony Imbeault scored his second of the season. After 40 minutes of play, Shawinigan was down 4-3.

Up to the middle of the third period, Saint-John was still up 4-3. That’s when Simon Dubois, Jason Horvath and Anthony Imbeault scored within 6 minutes to put Shawinigan 6-4. Fans were thinking that the game was already over at this point but Saint-John came back with a goal 3 minutes before the end of the game to make it 6-5. Shawinigan added two more goals (Alex Plamondon and Frédérik Théorêt) to seal the deal 8-5.

No more fuel in the tank, Shawinigan loses 6-1 in Halifax

For their third game in 48 hours, Shawinigan had the tough job to beat Halifax. Everyone could see that Shawinigan didn’t have a lot of energy left in the tank and the Mooseheads took advantage to take a quick 3-0 thanks to Otto Somppi (2) and Jake Ryczek.

In the second, Shawinigan pushed hard and, despite seeing Halifax adding one more, Anthony Imbeault, on a beautiful feed from Jan Drozg, put Shawinigan on the board. Unfortunately, it would be the only moment of joy for the Cataractes. Halifax scored twice in the third to finally overcome Shawinigan 6-1.

Again, despite the loss, Lucas Fitzpatrick did a great job stopping 38 shots.

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